Amazon Is Planning A Very Confrontational Meeting With The Big Music Labels Today

Amazon is having a meeting today with the big record labels about
its cloud music storage service,
Reuters reports.

The service lets anyone upload and back up their music to
Amazon's servers. A service like that had been rumored from
basically every tech company for a while, but the problem was
getting the record labels' buy-in. So Amazon just launched it
without telling the labels.

A ballsy move from Amazon, which isn't afraid of being audacious
like that. So now Amazon's music execs are meeting with record
label execs in New York to explain why they shouldn't have to pay
them anything more, even though the labels definitely think
Amazon should pay money for this.

In a letter obtained by Reuters, Amazon says it shouldn't have to
pay anything because it's a generic backup service and not just a
music locker service. The labels don't see it that way and are
reportedly furious.

This is a classic clash of the titans type situation, and who
knows how it's going to turn out. But Amazon is taking the side
of consumers here, so in a just universe they're the ones who
would win.